Lost channels? Look here for transmitter/reception issues

Oscarziggy

Sysmod wrote: »

How does that happen? Aren't both stations coming from the same transmitter? Wouldn't they both be transmitted at the same level? I'm curious about the physics here.

It could be the positioning of my aerial - it's the correct group but maybe it needs to be higher / lower .
RTE1 is on ch23 RTE 2 on ch 26 -- or visa versa - can't find the info at present.

dxhound2005

Oscarziggy wrote: »

It could be the positioning of my aerial - it's the correct group but maybe it needs to be higher / lower .
RTE1 is on ch23 RTE 2 on ch 26 -- or visa versa - can't find the info at present.

https://www.2rn.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/2RN-DTT-Television-Transmission-Network-Sept-2019-Rev.1.2.pdf

Mux 1 with RTE2 is on 23, Mux 2 with RTE1 is on 26 from Mount Leinster.

@sysmod. The maximum effective radiated power (ERP) is the relevant bit. They do not have to operate at the full maximum. A lot of queries here are from people who can get one frequency but not the other from a transmitter site, and it could be down to lower power on one of them.

Hotblack Desiato

Sysmod wrote: »

Thanks for the info. Do you know when it was installed and where it is exactly? I can check with my installer about redirecting it there although that may not now happen until all this lockdown is over. Is there any online map that shows its coverage? We might just scrape a line of sight along the southeast of the hill to Gorey town.

https://www.saorview.ie/en/get/coverage

Gerry Wicklow

I thought they changed the radiation pattern in the last tweak to limit overspill into Wales.

Elvis Hammond

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

There's a relay in Gorey, why aren't you using that?

Because it's a low powered directional setup, whose coverage is in the opposite direction to where it's needed here?

There's nothing 'wrong' with RTE1, from any transmitter site. If anyone thinks they're seeing some kind of pattern in replies here, you're not really; it's just coincidence. It's just inadequate receiving setups (again), some of which may have been undone by the frequency changes.

Oscarziggy

Line of sight to me from Mt Leinster is 90 miles - when the warmer weather comes along I may change the aerial .
Mt Leinster didn't change frequencies as far as I'm aware -- I've always used ch23 and ch26.

Elvis Hammond

Oscarziggy wrote: »

Line of sight to me from Mt Leinster is 90 miles - when the warmer weather comes along I may change the aerial .
Mt Leinster didn't change frequencies as far as I'm aware -- I've always used ch23 and ch26.

It wasn't so much yourself I was referring to, as you're outside the Saorview service area, & I suppose would be more subject to quirks in wanted tx coverage, as well as interference from unwanted sites.

And yes, Mt. L. has had Saorview on 23 & 26 since analogue was switched off.

Sysmod

It was all fine until last week. And I've been retuning every day I lose RTE (BBC1 takes its first place on my set).
Here's how it looks
https://twitter.com/PatrickROBeirne/status/1243673074005872640

And now even the online RTE player goes blank after a couple of minutes.

Sysmod

Thanks Hotblack
"Transmitter

Search result:

We're sorry. SAORVIEW coverage is a challenge in your area. Please consult a reputable aerial installer for further information and advice. Although SAORVIEW cannot reach all locations, viewers in the Republic of Ireland are likely to be covered by the SAORSAT satellite in-fill solution. For up to date information please check www.saorsat.ie "

Saorsat.ie:
For an average two-storey house or bungalow, 40 km round trip and 1 year warranty, an installation by a competent system installer would cost around €200 fully installed (dish, LNBF, chimney / wall bracket, cable-surface clipped, and installation).

So I guess we'll face that bill next autumn when the installers are able to work again.

flashinthepan

Sysmod wrote: »

Thanks Hotblack
"Transmitter

Search result:

We're sorry. SAORVIEW coverage is a challenge in your area. Please consult a reputable aerial installer for further information and advice. Although SAORVIEW cannot reach all locations, viewers in the Republic of Ireland are likely to be covered by the SAORSAT satellite in-fill solution. For up to date information please check www.saorsat.ie "

Saorsat.ie:
For an average two-storey house or bungalow, 40 km round trip and 1 year warranty, an installation by a competent system installer would cost around €200 fully installed (dish, LNBF, chimney / wall bracket, cable-surface clipped, and installation).

So I guess we'll face that bill next autumn when the installers are able to work again.

Find it hard to Believe that there is not something gone to pot at Saorview end
As my set up that's been working away for years has also gone in the last week with the exact same result as yours
full rock solid 100% signal on RTE 2
Intermittent 20 to 100% every couple of seconds on RTE1 with breakup and freezing but seems to work ok in the evening

I have clear line of sight to the Greystones transmitter prob 20 k ( don't quote me on that )

No Challenge there
Box is VU+ Duo2
Have tried Retune to Greystones but finds no channels

The RTE 2 that i'm picking up is on ch 22 iI think it was and would appear to be coming from the new transmitter up behind the rugby club 3 km away

My mate who we put in an Arriva box for lives down near the Gaol has no problems getting RTE from Greystones but he is down below Ballyguile hill and would not get any signal from the new transmitter

So my guess is Bleedover / over spill interfering

Might have get up today and move the Aerial round to the other side of chimney for clear line of sight of the new transmitter

Elvis Hammond

Sysmod wrote: »

... We're sorry. SAORVIEW coverage is a challenge in your area. Please consult a reputable aerial installer for further information and advice. Although SAORVIEW cannot reach all locations, viewers in the Republic of Ireland are likely to be covered by the SAORSAT satellite in-fill solution. For up to date information please check www.saorsat.ie "

Saorsat.ie:
For an average two-storey house or bungalow, 40 km round trip and 1 year warranty, an installation by a competent system installer would cost around €200 fully installed (dish, LNBF, chimney / wall bracket, cable-surface clipped, and installation).

So I guess we'll face that bill next autumn when the installers are able to work again.

It's possible you'd get Forth Mtn. back with an aerial adjustment or change. Kippure might even come in on its new frequencies, depending on just where you are in relation to the hill.

Elvis Hammond

flashinthepan wrote: »

... Might have get up today and move the Aerial round to the other side of chimney for clear line of sight of the new transmitter

Does the chimney totally screen the aerial from the new transmitter? Is there amplification in your setup?

That Wicklow transmitter is the same power as Greystones & it's a lot closer to you, but I don't see why it would have started causing problems only in the last week.

flashinthepan

Elvis Hammond wrote: »

Does the chimney totally screen the aerial from the new transmitter? Is there amplification in your setup?

That Wicklow transmitter is the same power as Greystones & it's a lot closer to you, but I don't see why it would have started causing problems only in the last week.

Thanks for the reply

There is no amplifier

I put this up a good few years ago when I first got an Amiko Alien

I used to work for a crowd called Cable and Utilities and we used to install the MMDS service in Wicklow a long time ago

The new transmitter would be partly obscured by the chimney
I would imagine half of the aerial would be sticking out enough to be caught
J

fryup

rte 1 (woodcock hill co clare) seems to break up during daytime and be fine in the evening something to do with high pressure ?

Elvis Hammond

fryup wrote: »

rte 1 (woodcock hill co clare) seems to break up during daytime and be fine in the evening something to do with high pressure ?

Unlikely. What kind of aerial do you have?

fryup

outdoor UHF aerial

Elvis Hammond

fryup wrote: »

outdoor UHF aerial

Installed by someone competent, who ensured there was a decent signal at the TV?

If that's the case, the installation has likely deteriorated since then, & there's no margin for little variations in signal that shouldn't be noticed at all.

flashinthepan

Finally got off my rear and re positioned the aerial for a clear line of sight to the transmitter up the back o the rugby club
at the mo the signal is 100 % for both RTE 1 and 2
Usually started to act up mid afternoon so I will see how it goes

fryup

^^ my signal used to act up mid-afternoon as well...is your transmitter - woodcock hill too??

flashinthepan

fryup wrote: »

^^ my signal used to act up mid-afternoon as well...is your transmitter - woodcock hill too??

No Im in Wicklow Town
I think woodcock hill is in Limerick

crossman47

I have Saorview with an indoor aerial as a standby in the kitchen. I am in Dublin 24 and reception from Three Rock was ok until yesterday (not great but sufficient for news, etc). It has suddenly saying "No Signal" no matter where I place the aerial. I have checked with Saorview and the recent change should not be affecting me. Has anyone had a similar problem? Thanks.

Sysmod

Elvis Hammond wrote: »

It's possible you'd get Forth Mtn. back with an aerial adjustment or change. Kippure might even come in on its new frequencies, depending on just where you are in relation to the hill.

Yes, we get it from Forth Mt. We're on the opposite side of the hill to Kippure. Now that lockdown has eased we called our local installer who said that RTE had changed its frequencies (shouldn't they announce that to the viewers somewhere to save us all this uncertainty?) so he installed a new amplifier, replaced the splitter by a diplexer - BBC and RTE aerials come down the same cable - and we got RTE back. €150. It still went off briefly the other evening so it's not perfect but then BBC dropped out too although we've a great height to get it directly from Wales. We haven't had to retune again.

Hotblack Desiato

crossman47 wrote: »

I have Saorview with an indoor aerial as a standby in the kitchen. I am in Dublin 24 and reception from Three Rock was ok until yesterday (not great but sufficient for news, etc). It has suddenly saying "No Signal" no matter where I place the aerial. I have checked with Saorview and the recent change should not be affecting me. Has anyone had a similar problem? Thanks.

Most of those indoor aerials are rubbish

Of course the best option is an outdoor aerial, but if you can't do that then something like this could be used indoors:

https://www.freetv.ie/red-group-a-uhf-aerial/

I've got a similar Blakes aerial looking out through a dormer attic window in D22, it's passively split in two and then one leg of that is passively split in four :eek: , no amplification, but I still get very high strength and quality at all receivers even with about 1/8th of the original signal (oh and it's not even grouped, it's a wideband.) D24 should also be a strong signal area unless you have local obstructions maybe.

It'll need to be aimed roughly in the direction of the transmitter, but you may be able to hide it on top of the kitchen presses. Even if you have to hacksaw a bit off the end it'd still work better than the usual indoor aerial...

PJtharsaile

I have been using an old PC running LibreElec with a DVB-S2 card as a PVR on and off for some years. I bought a Realtek RTL2832 based DVB-T USB tuner to add Saorview channels some time ago but couldn't get the two EPG displays working simultaneously. I parked Saorview / DVB-T at the time.

I've just reinstalled LibreElec (v9.3.2) thinking that things might work ok now. However, I can get no channels at all on DVB-T, selecting Kippure as my mast, as before (using dvb-usb-dib0700-1.20.fw firmware). I'm wondering if this is because the frequencies changed and the info loaded by TVHeadend is out of date or if this USB DVB-T tuner is no longer usable. I have seen a suggestion a kernel update may have broken it, another that I need to renumber a "frontend", advice that I shouldn't select "auto" when scanning etc. I haven't yet hit on the right combination of tweaks. Would like to just have this work. TV works fine; there's a good signal on the cable.

Advice?

(I might be interested in a single PCI board with both tuners or a guaranteed working with Linux DVB-T board)

Johnboy1951

PJtharsaile wrote: »

I have been using an old PC running LibreElec with a DVB-S2 card as a PVR on and off for some years. I bought a Realtek RTL2832 based DVB-T USB tuner to add Saorview channels some time ago but couldn't get the two EPG displays working simultaneously. I parked Saorview / DVB-T at the time.

I've just reinstalled LibreElec (v9.3.2) thinking that things might work ok now. However, I can get no channels at all on DVB-T, selecting Kippure as my mast, as before (using dvb-usb-dib0700-1.20.fw firmware). I'm wondering if this is because the frequencies changed and the info loaded by TVHeadend is out of date or if this USB DVB-T tuner is no longer usable. I have seen a suggestion a kernel update may have broken it, another that I need to renumber a "frontend", advice that I shouldn't select "auto" when scanning etc. I haven't yet hit on the right combination of tweaks. Would like to just have this work. TV works fine; there's a good signal on the cable.

Advice?

(I might be interested in a single PCI board with both tuners or a guaranteed working with Linux DVB-T board)

I suspect it is out of date mux frequencies if your local transmitter changed frequency.
That should be easy to check in TVH - Configuration - DVB Inputs - Muxes.

PJtharsaile

Exactly right. Thanks.

I may finally have a PVR with an integrated EPG for both terrestrial and satellite channels.

PJtharsaile

Turns out I replied too quickly. I'm seeing channels only on one of the muxes:

578MHz 0 channels (Saorview 1 on UHF 34)
586MHz 38 channels (Saorview 2 on UHF 35)

??? Any ideas?

(TV sees

1 RTE1
2 RTE2
3 Virgin Media 1
4 TG4
5 Virgin Media 2
6 Virgin Media 3
7 RTE Jr
8 RTE News now
11 RTE One +1
12 RTE Two +1
22 Tithe an Oireachtas
27 Saorview information

and radio stations)

and end up with names like this for those detected: {DVB-T Network/586MHz/{PMT:2051}}

This

# Ireland, Kippure
# Generated from http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/Broadcast_Technical_Parameters.xlsx
[CH54: Saorview MUX1]
DELIVERY_SYSTEM = DVBT
FREQUENCY = 738000000
BANDWIDTH_HZ = 8000000
CODE_RATE_HP = 3/4
CODE_RATE_LP = NONE
MODULATION = QAM/64
TRANSMISSION_MODE = 8K
GUARD_INTERVAL = 1/32
HIERARCHY = NONE
INVERSION = AUTO

[CH58: Saorview MUX2]
DELIVERY_SYSTEM = DVBT
FREQUENCY = 770000000
BANDWIDTH_HZ = 8000000
CODE_RATE_HP = 3/4
CODE_RATE_LP = NONE
MODULATION = QAM/64
TRANSMISSION_MODE = 8K
GUARD_INTERVAL = 1/32
HIERARCHY = NONE
INVERSION = AUTO

seems to be the last definition in TVH and the link above is now dead.

Update:

Hmm. I reinstalled LE, which turns out to keep the mux info in binary form :-(, and got both muxes this time. 76 channels in all, most without names. For what I wonder?

Johnboy1951

Empty placeholders mostly ...... with a few test channels thrown in.

You only need to map the actual channels you wish to view in TVH, and only those will show in the channel list.

marclt

Sysmod wrote: »

Yes, we get it from Forth Mt. We're on the opposite side of the hill to Kippure. It still went off briefly the other evening so it's not perfect but then BBC dropped out too although we've a great height to get it directly from Wales. We haven't had to retune again.

The difficulty is that Forth Mt. and Mt. Leinster share frequencies with Carmel in West Wales. The same frequencies (33 and 36) are also used by the Haverfordwest transmitter (although different polarity). As a test, if you lose Forth Mtn again, see if there is anything on Ch.29 as this is Freeview HD from Carmel.

Hotblack Desiato

There are a lot of empty channel IDs broadcast on Saorview, and only 2RN know why.

My setup just ignores them as far as the EPG is concerned, I didn't have to do anything.

Using LibreELEC on a Raspberrry Pi 3 with Tvheadend, clients are more Pis with LibreELEC, computers/tablets/phones with Kodi

You'll need two DVB-T tuner sticks if you want to record a channel on one mux while watching or recording a channel on the other mux.

I got a lot of good info on this thread : https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=104172148&postcount=44